Sanaa (South24)

The Yemeni Houthi militia announced yesterday (Friday) that they had bombed an Israeli military target in Tel Aviv with a ’Palestine 2‘ ballistic missile, a missile the Houthis claim is hypersonic and which they had first used on September 15 in a similar attack on Tel Aviv.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Sarea said that they also attacked the Ashkelon area in Israel with a ’Jaffa‘ drone, and that the two military operations "successfully achieved the goals."

The ’Jaffa‘ is the same drone that was used in the attack on Tel Aviv on July 19, which led to the death of an Israeli and injury to others. Israel had responded to the attack with a devastating air strike on the Houthi-controlled port of Hodeidah in Yemen the following day.

Despite the Houthis' announcement of the success of the attack (September 26) on Tel Aviv, the Israeli army said that it had intercepted a surface-to-surface missile launched by the Houthis from Yemen over Tel Aviv using its Arrow defense system.

A Houthi official hinted that the attack was in retaliation for an Israeli airstrike on Thursday that killed senior Hezbollah commander Mohammed Srur, head of the aerial forces. Srur was among several top advisers sent by Hezbollah to Yemen to train the Iran-backed Houthis, a source close to Hezbollah told AFP.

The ‘Palestine 2’ missile is reported to be a ‘hybrid’ of the short-range Iranian Fateh-110 and Kheibar Shekan medium-range ballistic missiles. It has a warhead painted like a Palestinian keffiyeh checkered scarf. The Houthis have previously paraded mockups of both the Fateh-110 and Kheibar Shaken.

In another statement on Friday, the Houthis said they targeted three American destroyers in the Red Sea with 23 ballistic and cruise missiles and a drone "as they were heading to support the Israeli enemy."

Yahya Sarea claimed that the American destroyers suffered direct hits as a result of their attack.

The Houthi attacks came amid an unprecedented escalation in the southern suburbs of Beirut, Lebanon, as a result of Israeli airstrikes that Tel Aviv said targeted the central leadership of the Lebanese Hezbollah.

In a major development, the Israeli military announced today that Hezbollah Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah and other leaders had been killed in these attacks.

The Iran-allied Hezbollah group has officially confirmed the death of its Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, who has led Hezbollah for 32 years.

Gen. Abbas Nilforushan, a prominent general in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps, also died in the Israeli airstrike that killed Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut, Iranian media reported Saturday.

The killing of Gen. Abbas Nilforushan marks the latest casualty suffered by Iran in the nearly yearlong Israel-Hamas war.

Israeli strikes in the southern suburbs of Beirut continued in an unprecedented manner for five hours on Saturday morning following Friday's attack, according to Reuters.

Israel has not yet responded to the Houthi attacks, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has previously threatened the Houthis with paying a "heavy price."

The Houthis say their attacks against the "Zionist entity" will continue until the war on Gaza and Lebanon stops.